Dr Sergio Morales is a part of a large multi-disciplinary research team that is venturing to Antarctica to study the impact of global warming on Ross Ice Shelf.
The team of 32 specialists is led and coordinated by Professor Christina Hulbe of the Department of Surveying and Dr Christian Ohneiser of the Department of Geology. Professor Hulbe says the goal of the research programme is to understand the processes and ice/ocean interactions that matter most for change in the region, and locate all-important sediment deep beneath the ice to give clues to how the ice retreats. This involves complex ice-drilling methods and the work of a wide range of experts from engineers and geologists to microbiologists.
The team will investigate sites at four boundaries of the ice shelf: the upper surface, where snow accumulates and interacts with the atmosphere; the lower surface and ocean cavity, where ice both melts and freezes, and a record of past changes can be found; the seaward front, where sea ice and icebergs form; and the grounding line, the transition across which the ice returns to the sea after millennia flowing through glaciers.
Read the media release on the University of Otago website
